Post Competition Congratulations

Hello Everyone!

With the competition done I'd just like to give a thank you to everyone.  I'll make a bigger post in a few days to give a full summary of the competition, but for now I'd just like to keep this one personal.

First off, a big congratulation to everyone.  You guys put so much hard work into this season.  Can you imagine that for 6 weeks you put in 13 hours a week at the shop?  Thats a part time job right there guys!  All of you who took your time to show up and help out should feel personally responsible for the team's success.  There's no "I" in team, and while I know that was about as cliche as it gets, none of us would be here without the contributions all of you gave.  All those little things you do without being told to do it: putting tools away, doing some organization, making minor fixes where you see fit, those all keep this team running.  Each time you take responsibility for a task and see it to completion, that demonstrates the level of commitment you have to your teammates.  I can't stress enough how proud I am of you guys.

To Drake, Ryan, Cameron and Hardy, thanks for being a star drive team.  You guys thought on your feet, made good decisions, fixed that robot and stayed so organized I couldn't believe it.  Anytime I had to talk to judges or scouting, one of you would be right there to take my place and do my job.  Anytime we needed you from the stands you came right away and got to work.  We all make mistakes, but you guys are the statistical outliers because I don't think you made a single mistake that you didn't immediately fix.  I mean, we all forgot to turn on the robot at least once, but we caught that every time so hey, no skin off my back.

Kyle, I'm giving you a special shoutout because you are the most dedicated photographer ever.  The entire drive team is indebted to you for helping out in the queue and on the field.  I haven't seen any of your pictures yet so I can't complement you on those, but I'm sure they're great.

Scouting team, I've already called the NSA and they'll be offering you positions soon.  You make the best eyes in the sky I've ever worked with and you kept us from making some serious mistakes.  If we'd listened to you more we probably would have done even better and I personally apologize for not listening to you when you told us about the team who had a lot of trouble with cooperition.  Next year I am bringing you food and gifts to keep you guys working at top capacity because you are simply invaluable.  

John, that pit looked beautiful.  There was not a single time when I needed something and it wasn't where I was looking for it.  You can take 100% responsibility for those two perfect pit ratings we got during the competition.  We've had a bit of trouble sometimes in previous years, but none this year.  Thank you man, cleaning up is a thankless job and you handled it like a champ.

Josh, I've never felt more safe.  I think this makes the first year where we've had a well put together first-aid kit that everyone knew the location of.  Not to mention you helped John keep the pit free of clutter and you made sure that anyone who didn't need to be in the pit was cheering in the stands.  

Richard, that mascot is awesome.  I saw a ton of mascots out there that teams obviously paid for and you still looked better than all of them.  I am so impressed at what you made.  If I had half the skill you do I'd be making money off of it, so props to you man.

Finally, to all of you who I didn't mention, don't think that you weren't useful.  I just mentioned who I worked with the most, but all of you guys make a huge difference.  Cheering in the stands and upholding our team spirit is more important than you understand.  The whole drive team will tell you that whenever we step out there, hearing a big cheer from our team is the best morale boost there is.  I am so glad that the competition went well, and I hope you all had fun.

Thanks,
Grayson